Mac
by Enthusiastic Fish
Summary: Pre-series, Tim-centered oneshot. Tim is working at a bank and is bored with the way his life is going, until a chance online conversation leads him to a group of people with an interesting perspective. Foundation for a possible series of stories.


**A/N: **This story requires a bit of introduction. It is pre-series, and is the possible set-up for a Tim-centered series of stories based around a concept I first introduced in my Gibbs/Hollis story _Right Words_. You don't have to read that to get this because I'm starting at the beginning here, but if you want to see where I'm coming from you sure can. I won't complain. :) I haven't started any other stories in the series yet, but this can stand on its own and when I do start writing, this background will be necessary. So, I hope you enjoy.

**Disclaimer:** I do not now, nor have I ever, owned NCIS and its characters. I am not making money off of this story, but I do lay claim to the OCs I've created. :)

* * *

**Mac  
**by Enthusiastic Fish

Tim sat glumly in his little apartment. NCIS had rejected his application. The physical portion just wasn't up to snuff, and they'd had a lot of applicants this year. Right now, he was looking at his current work schedule. At a bank.

A bank.

How dull and boring could one's life get than working at a bank? That wasn't what he wanted to do with his life. Not at all. He had been so humiliated when his physical prowess had been far from up to snuff. He was determined to get over this, and reapply, but still...

He sighed.

Then, after a few more seconds of wallowing, he squared his shoulders. He would do this. He had to have a job while he got himself ready to apply again. So he would do it. There was no reason to pretend he _wanted_ this job, but it _was_ a job. He was maintaining the networks, computers and programs at the bank. He had plenty of training in IT. It was a good job. Full-time, benefits, salary. A lot of people would love to have a job like this.

_But I don't._

Again, he shook himself and looked at his schedule. He had to get up to work tomorrow.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

_One month later..._

"Tim, if you're so bored, then, why don't you just find something else to do on your off hours?"

Tim furrowed his brow at his friend.

"Like what?"

"I'm sure you could figure something out," Darryl said. "It's not like you're stupid. I thought you were trying to write."

Tim shook his head.

"I just don't have any inspiration. It's not going anywhere right now. It's more frustrating than anything at this point."

"Well, I'm sure you'll find something. I've got to work early tomorrow. I'll talk at you later, okay?"

"Yeah, sure."

Darryl paid his tab and then left. Tim stared at his glass. There was nothing fun about drinking alone, and he wasn't a heavy drinker anyway. So he paid for his mostly untouched drink and headed back to his apartment. He sat at his computer. It was one he'd built himself. It was as fast and powerful as he could make it. It didn't _look_ very impressive, but what was under the hood... Tim grinned. It was wonderful, better than he could buy at any store.

He logged on and started jumping around to various chatrooms, seeing if there was anything interesting going on. Most of them were doing nothing that grabbed him. Then, he found one where there seemed to be a debate going on about hacking. There was one person who was saying that hacking was fine...so long as you didn't hurt anyone else with what you were doing. There was another who was saying that any hacking was fine. If the world couldn't keep up, they deserved to be left behind. And a third who said that all hacking was wrong and they had no right to go beyond the limits of the law.

Tim joined the chatroom and started following the conversation. He had intended to keep quiet and just read. This was the kind of topic that he found interesting, simply because he'd done his share of hacking in the past, but he'd never been tempted to cross the line he had in his head (hurting another person, stealing something or revealing sensitive or personal information). Unless he saw something truly illegal going on, he didn't feel like he needed to talk about these places.

He wasn't going to write anything, but he suddenly found himself leaping to the defense of the one who was trying to navigate a middle road.

_ElfLord: There's nothing wrong with choosing to put limits on ourselves. If more people did that, we wouldn't be confined to hiding in shadows. We could just keep finding more things and breaking new ground if people like you didn't decide that you could do whatever you wanted with no consequences. There are always consequences...even if they're not specifically yours._

There was a pause and then, the debate kept on going furiously. Tim rolled his eyes. Once the figurative shouting started, the level of discourse fell precipitously and it was time to get out of it. He signed out of the chatroom without any further comment and played a few games before heading to bed. The next day was Saturday. The only good thing about the bank was that he didn't have to work on the weekends at all, and he got all the holidays off. ...unless something went wrong, of course.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

Like too many others, Tim had his shopping to do on the weekend and so he headed to the grocery store as early as possible to avoid the crowds. He wasn't particularly imaginative with his food, but he had faithfully promised his mother that he'd make an effort to cook more often than get takeout. He still got takeout, but he did try to cook more than half the time...even if it was out of a box.

So, laden with groceries, he headed back home. It was his routine. There wasn't much to shake things up. That was one of the reasons he'd never wanted a regular job. He was too likely to get into a rut. Everything was always the same.

...until today.

When he got back to his apartment building, there was a woman outside. He didn't recognize her, but he didn't know everyone who lived in the building. There were too many for that. He just smiled and nodded to her and then went on his way.

"Elf Lord, I presume?"

Tim turned around.

"Excuse me?"

"Elf Lord?" she repeated.

Tim furrowed his brow.

"Do I know you?"

"Not yet."

"Uh...okay. What do you want?"

"To talk to you...if you don't mind."

"Well, I don't want my groceries to spoil since I've already paid for them."

She smiled a little.

"You're not interested?"

"Confused is more what I'd go for right now," Tim said.

"About how I know your username?"

"About why a beautiful woman who is a complete stranger to me is suddenly talking to me. I'm not exactly a chick magnet."

She smiled.

"Oh, really?"

Something about the way she asked the question made Tim blush.

"I...uh...I have to get my groceries put away."

"Mind if I tag along?"

"I guess not."

"Good."

She walked behind him as he headed to his apartment. He couldn't imagine what she might be wanting. Part of him was wondering if he was about to be mugged and he was just the stupidest person in the world for letting this woman come with him. Part of him was wondering if she would say her name was Trinity. ...or if she'd have a white rabbit tattoo.

If the latter, he'd follow her.

The woman walked with him into his apartment and sat down at his computer while he put his groceries away. When he finished he took a breath and turned to ask her what in the world she wanted with him.

"So..." he began.

"Not too fancy, is it," she said, pointing to his computer.

"Doesn't need to be fancy on the outside. It's what's inside that matters."

"True enough," she said and nodded.

"Are you going to explain why you invited yourself into my apartment?" Tim asked, knowing that if he had to keep up this appearance of confidence for much longer, he was going to crash and burn in a major way.

"You were on a chatroom last night and joined a debate about...hacking."

"Yeah? So?"

"So...were you just arguing for the sake of arguing or did you mean what you said?"

"I meant what I said. I'm going to be a federal agent. I believe in limits."

"And hacking, too?" she asked with a grin. "Last I checked, hacking wasn't exactly considered kosher for federal agents."

Tim hedged a little. He didn't think he could give up all the...tinkering he did on his own time. Her grin widened when he didn't answer right away.

"So...you have skills, then?"

"I'd like to think so. What's with the third degree?"

She smiled and stood up.

"I thought, if you really do have skills, you might like to...hang out with some people who also have skills."

"Hacking skills?" Tim asked.

"Maybe."

"I told you. I believe in limits."

"So do I."

Tim raised an eyebrow.

"I'm Lex."

"I'm..."

"No. We don't want real names. I don't know what your name is, only where you are right now."

"We?"

She smiled again. "If you want to join us, here's the address where we'll be. This time. We move around a lot, don't get all together very often. Tomorrow afternoon is our next meeting."

"Meeting? You make it sound like some secret cabal and I'm not sure I want to be involved in something like that."

"It's not. Just a group of almost-friends getting together with common interests."

"In hacking."

"In learning."

"Learning what?"

"Whatever we want."

She set down the paper by Tim's keyboard.

"I'll let myself out."

She left. Tim stood where he was for a few minutes. This kind of thing didn't happen. Did it? He'd had computer friends before. They'd got together and done things together before...even some questionable things.

...but he'd never had a woman show up at his place, invite him to join up with a group and act so mysterious about it. It was like something out of a cheap dime store novel. ...or _The Matrix_.

Tim grinned to himself. That comparison just wouldn't leave him alone. Still, it had worked out pretty nicely for Neo. He figured that there wouldn't be a problem, and if there was...well, it was a risk he'd have to take. If and when he became an agent, he'd have to take risks all the time. Might as well start now.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

_One day later..._

Tim pulled up to a building, laptop in his backpack. This was the address Lex had written down. This was the time.

...but was this just an elaborate joke? If so, why?

He squared his shoulders and walked into the building. Once inside, he wasn't sure where to go.

"So you came. Good."

Tim turned and saw Lex standing there with that same faintly evaluating expression on her face.

"Yeah, I did."

"This way."

They walked down the hall to a room. She opened the door and inside was...

...a bunch of other people with their own computers. They all looked up at him. One was rather dismissive.

"Man, Lex. You brought us a square. I can see it in his cheap, ratty suit."

Tim was affronted at the comment.

"I was invited, but I wasn't invited to be insulted. If that's what this is, I have better things to do with my time," he said and turned to go.

"Shut up, Jart," Lex said. "And don't be so touchy. Jart's just coming at this from a different direction."

"What's his name?" Jart asked.

"What's your name?" Lex asked.

Tim hesitated. He hadn't really thought of what to call himself, but he remembered that they weren't supposed to use real names. Both Jart and Lex had really short ones...and Tim wasn't sure he wanted to call himself Elf Lord away from a computer screen.

"Mac," he said. Nothing else came to mind.

"Mac, this is Black, Spring, and you've already met Jart and his lovely personality."

"So you're Mr. Limits, huh?" Black asked. "Lex said that she had a defender the other night. I didn't expect it to be someone like you. You look like a banker."

Tim flushed.

"You _are_? Wow."

"Actually, what we've got here is a budding federal agent," Lex said.

"And you brought him _here_?" Spring said, incredulously.

"I don't even know what I'm here for...unless you're going to tell me that the world is the Matrix and I should take the blue pill," Tim said.

Black laughed.

"Not as far as _we_ know...and we know quite a lot."

"So...?" Tim asked, unsure of who to look at for information.

"Set up your equipment right over here," Spring said, pointing to an empty space at the table.

"And what am I going to do?"

"Learn," Lex said. "That's what we do. We don't plant viruses. We don't steal stuff. We just...learn."

"And what are you..._learning_ about today?"

Black steered him to the empty spot and helped him sit down.

"You. Get going."

"And do what?" Tim asked. Part of him was worried, but most of him was intrigued by these people.

"Learn something...and show us."

Tim figured they weren't asking him to access _Encyclopedia Britannica_. He considered for a moment and then looked at Lex who just raised her eyebrows, basically, telling him to get on with it.

He thought about it for a moment more. Then, he booted up his laptop, and he dove into a particular area of the TSA. He poked and prodded around the edges for a few minutes.

"Told you. He's a square," Jart said in a low voice.

Tim smiled to himself. He was suddenly determined to prove that less questionable tactics would work just as well as whatever methods Jart might prefer. He found a hole in the security of the site and followed it into the admin section. In under a minute, he had access to the info he was searching for. He scooted back and looked at Jart.

"Well?" he asked.

"How did you do that?" Spring asked. "I didn't see how you got in."

"That's because it's a square process...and you can't fit a square peg into a round hole."

There was a moment of silence and then, Jart smiled and groaned.

"That was one of the worst puns I've ever heard! I love it! Now, show us what you did, Mac."

Tim grinned and turned back. He pointed out the steps he'd taken to bypass the security window and then, once he was in, it was child's play to look around a bit and then get out.

"Well, I'm convinced," Spring said, smiling. "That's not a place I've been before."

"Me, too," Black said with a nod. "That's a really different approach. I guess it takes a straight-laced guy like you to come up with it."

"I was already convinced," Lex said.

They all looked at Jart.

"Well, as much as I don't like being shown up, I suppose I can let him in, too."

"Excellent. Now, let's look at what Mac found."

Everyone gathered around to see what there was to see.

Tim stayed for hours.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

_Monday morning..._

As he walked into the bank, Tim couldn't help but smile. No, this still wasn't the job he wanted and he had every intention of getting into NCIS soon, but he had something else to keep him going.

He had friends and a chance to learn.

Besides landing his dream job, what could be better?

FINIS!


End file.
